the Amazon project
In 2009, I launched an ambitious project to explore the largest most successful e-retailer in the world, the Amazon Corporation. Every month, 270 million people visit amazon.com and in 2008 they generated over $19.2 billion in sales. This is a global phenomenon and Amazon hosts seven individual websites for the countries, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, and the United States. I was interested to take a virtual environment and make it physical. The result is a multi-faceted installation of the “global bestsellers 2009” that examines three main areas of the websites: taxonomy, products and customer feedback.
Taxonomy
Considering that amazon.com has over ten million items for sale, a dependable user navigation system is crucial. Each individual search finds a predictable path towards a desired end - these are called category trees. Searching for a towel rack, one might look under:
Home Improvement > Hardware > Bathroom Hardware > Towel Holders > Towel Racks. I set out to document all the groupings, extracting every category tree from each of the country sites, then printing and binding all of them into seven hard-cover books. With over 52,000 categories in the U.S. alone, these volumes quantify the massive amounts of consumer goods available from this one retailer.
Products
The installation illustrates 5,500 “bestselling” products across all seven Amazon websites. I used a type of photography to literally frame each product and create individual digital images. All images are cataloged by: product name, product price and country origin. Then the products are coded by color, from the least popular color (white) on top to the most popular color (blue) on bottom and the country and purchase price is listed under each photo. The grid-like display invites intriguing social commentary and questions around demand and desire for merchandise. Are the preferences decided by Amazon’s advertising strategy or does each country have a unique consumer character?
Customer
The Customer Feedback section of the website provided access to individual consumers. This intriguing point of connection between corporation and citizen reveals emotional and ideological responses to the individual products. I extracted the text and added voice software to create audio files. Slideshows project images layered with the soundtrack of voices in all seven languages reading product testimonies.
photos by Lara Woolfson
the Amazon project
In 2009, I launched an ambitious project to explore the largest most successful e-retailer in the world, the Amazon Corporation. Every month, 270 million people visit amazon.com and in 2008 they generated over $19.2 billion in sales. This is a global phenomenon and Amazon hosts seven individual websites for the countries, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, and the United States. I was interested to take a virtual environment and make it physical. The result is a multi-faceted installation of the “global bestsellers 2009” that examines three main areas of the websites: taxonomy, products and customer feedback.
Taxonomy
Considering that amazon.com has over ten million items for sale, a dependable user navigation system is crucial. Each individual search finds a predictable path towards a desired end - these are called category trees. Searching for a towel rack, one might look under:
Home Improvement > Hardware > Bathroom Hardware > Towel Holders > Towel Racks. I set out to document all the groupings, extracting every category tree from each of the country sites, then printing and binding all of them into seven hard-cover books. With over 52,000 categories in the U.S. alone, these volumes quantify the massive amounts of consumer goods available from this one retailer.
Products
The installation illustrates 5,500 “bestselling” products across all seven Amazon websites. I used a type of photography to literally frame each product and create individual digital images. All images are cataloged by: product name, product price and country origin. Then the products are coded by color, from the least popular color (white) on top to the most popular color (blue) on bottom and the country and purchase price is listed under each photo. The grid-like display invites intriguing social commentary and questions around demand and desire for merchandise. Are the preferences decided by Amazon’s advertising strategy or does each country have a unique consumer character?
Customer
The Customer Feedback section of the website provided access to individual consumers. This intriguing point of connection between corporation and citizen reveals emotional and ideological responses to the individual products. I extracted the text and added voice software to create audio files. Slideshows project images layered with the soundtrack of voices in all seven languages reading product testimonies.
photos by Lara Woolfson
the Amazon project
In 2009, I launched an ambitious project to explore the largest most successful e-retailer in the world, the Amazon Corporation. Every month, 270 million people visit amazon.com and in 2008 they generated over $19.2 billion in sales. This is a global phenomenon and Amazon hosts seven individual websites for the countries, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, and the United States. I was interested to take a virtual environment and make it physical. The result is a multi-faceted installation of the “global bestsellers 2009” that examines three main areas of the websites: taxonomy, products and customer feedback.
Taxonomy
Considering that amazon.com has over ten million items for sale, a dependable user navigation system is crucial. Each individual search finds a predictable path towards a desired end - these are called category trees. Searching for a towel rack, one might look under:
Home Improvement > Hardware > Bathroom Hardware > Towel Holders > Towel Racks. I set out to document all the groupings, extracting every category tree from each of the country sites, then printing and binding all of them into seven hard-cover books. With over 52,000 categories in the U.S. alone, these volumes quantify the massive amounts of consumer goods available from this one retailer.
Products
The installation illustrates 5,500 “bestselling” products across all seven Amazon websites. I used a type of photography to literally frame each product and create individual digital images. All images are cataloged by: product name, product price and country origin. Then the products are coded by color, from the least popular color (white) on top to the most popular color (blue) on bottom and the country and purchase price is listed under each photo. The grid-like display invites intriguing social commentary and questions around demand and desire for merchandise. Are the preferences decided by Amazon’s advertising strategy or does each country have a unique consumer character?
Customer
The Customer Feedback section of the website provided access to individual consumers. This intriguing point of connection between corporation and citizen reveals emotional and ideological responses to the individual products. I extracted the text and added voice software to create audio files. Slideshows project images layered with the soundtrack of voices in all seven languages reading product testimonies.
photos by Lara Woolfson
the Amazon project
In 2009, I launched an ambitious project to explore the largest most successful e-retailer in the world, the Amazon Corporation. Every month, 270 million people visit amazon.com and in 2008 they generated over $19.2 billion in sales. This is a global phenomenon and Amazon hosts seven individual websites for the countries, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, and the United States. I was interested to take a virtual environment and make it physical. The result is a multi-faceted installation of the “global bestsellers 2009” that examines three main areas of the websites: taxonomy, products and customer feedback.
Taxonomy
Considering that amazon.com has over ten million items for sale, a dependable user navigation system is crucial. Each individual search finds a predictable path towards a desired end - these are called category trees. Searching for a towel rack, one might look under:
Home Improvement > Hardware > Bathroom Hardware > Towel Holders > Towel Racks. I set out to document all the groupings, extracting every category tree from each of the country sites, then printing and binding all of them into seven hard-cover books. With over 52,000 categories in the U.S. alone, these volumes quantify the massive amounts of consumer goods available from this one retailer.
Products
The installation illustrates 5,500 “bestselling” products across all seven Amazon websites. I used a type of photography to literally frame each product and create individual digital images. All images are cataloged by: product name, product price and country origin. Then the products are coded by color, from the least popular color (white) on top to the most popular color (blue) on bottom and the country and purchase price is listed under each photo. The grid-like display invites intriguing social commentary and questions around demand and desire for merchandise. Are the preferences decided by Amazon’s advertising strategy or does each country have a unique consumer character?
Customer
The Customer Feedback section of the website provided access to individual consumers. This intriguing point of connection between corporation and citizen reveals emotional and ideological responses to the individual products. I extracted the text and added voice software to create audio files. Slideshows project images layered with the soundtrack of voices in all seven languages reading product testimonies.
photos by Lara Woolfson
the Amazon project
In 2009, I launched an ambitious project to explore the largest most successful e-retailer in the world, the Amazon Corporation. Every month, 270 million people visit amazon.com and in 2008 they generated over $19.2 billion in sales. This is a global phenomenon and Amazon hosts seven individual websites for the countries, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, and the United States. I was interested to take a virtual environment and make it physical. The result is a multi-faceted installation of the “global bestsellers 2009” that examines three main areas of the websites: taxonomy, products and customer feedback.
Taxonomy
Considering that amazon.com has over ten million items for sale, a dependable user navigation system is crucial. Each individual search finds a predictable path towards a desired end - these are called category trees. Searching for a towel rack, one might look under:
Home Improvement > Hardware > Bathroom Hardware > Towel Holders > Towel Racks. I set out to document all the groupings, extracting every category tree from each of the country sites, then printing and binding all of them into seven hard-cover books. With over 52,000 categories in the U.S. alone, these volumes quantify the massive amounts of consumer goods available from this one retailer.
Products
The installation illustrates 5,500 “bestselling” products across all seven Amazon websites. I used a type of photography to literally frame each product and create individual digital images. All images are cataloged by: product name, product price and country origin. Then the products are coded by color, from the least popular color (white) on top to the most popular color (blue) on bottom and the country and purchase price is listed under each photo. The grid-like display invites intriguing social commentary and questions around demand and desire for merchandise. Are the preferences decided by Amazon’s advertising strategy or does each country have a unique consumer character?
Customer
The Customer Feedback section of the website provided access to individual consumers. This intriguing point of connection between corporation and citizen reveals emotional and ideological responses to the individual products. I extracted the text and added voice software to create audio files. Slideshows project images layered with the soundtrack of voices in all seven languages reading product testimonies.
photos by Lara Woolfson
the Amazon project
In 2009, I launched an ambitious project to explore the largest most successful e-retailer in the world, the Amazon Corporation. Every month, 270 million people visit amazon.com and in 2008 they generated over $19.2 billion in sales. This is a global phenomenon and Amazon hosts seven individual websites for the countries, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, and the United States. I was interested to take a virtual environment and make it physical. The result is a multi-faceted installation of the “global bestsellers 2009” that examines three main areas of the websites: taxonomy, products and customer feedback.
Taxonomy
Considering that amazon.com has over ten million items for sale, a dependable user navigation system is crucial. Each individual search finds a predictable path towards a desired end - these are called category trees. Searching for a towel rack, one might look under:
Home Improvement > Hardware > Bathroom Hardware > Towel Holders > Towel Racks. I set out to document all the groupings, extracting every category tree from each of the country sites, then printing and binding all of them into seven hard-cover books. With over 52,000 categories in the U.S. alone, these volumes quantify the massive amounts of consumer goods available from this one retailer.
Products
The installation illustrates 5,500 “bestselling” products across all seven Amazon websites. I used a type of photography to literally frame each product and create individual digital images. All images are cataloged by: product name, product price and country origin. Then the products are coded by color, from the least popular color (white) on top to the most popular color (blue) on bottom and the country and purchase price is listed under each photo. The grid-like display invites intriguing social commentary and questions around demand and desire for merchandise. Are the preferences decided by Amazon’s advertising strategy or does each country have a unique consumer character?
Customer
The Customer Feedback section of the website provided access to individual consumers. This intriguing point of connection between corporation and citizen reveals emotional and ideological responses to the individual products. I extracted the text and added voice software to create audio files. Slideshows project images layered with the soundtrack of voices in all seven languages reading product testimonies.
photos by Lara Woolfson
the Amazon project
In 2009, I launched an ambitious project to explore the largest most successful e-retailer in the world, the Amazon Corporation. Every month, 270 million people visit amazon.com and in 2008 they generated over $19.2 billion in sales. This is a global phenomenon and Amazon hosts seven individual websites for the countries, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, and the United States. I was interested to take a virtual environment and make it physical. The result is a multi-faceted installation of the “global bestsellers 2009” that examines three main areas of the websites: taxonomy, products and customer feedback.
Taxonomy
Considering that amazon.com has over ten million items for sale, a dependable user navigation system is crucial. Each individual search finds a predictable path towards a desired end - these are called category trees. Searching for a towel rack, one might look under:
Home Improvement > Hardware > Bathroom Hardware > Towel Holders > Towel Racks. I set out to document all the groupings, extracting every category tree from each of the country sites, then printing and binding all of them into seven hard-cover books. With over 52,000 categories in the U.S. alone, these volumes quantify the massive amounts of consumer goods available from this one retailer.
Products
The installation illustrates 5,500 “bestselling” products across all seven Amazon websites. I used a type of photography to literally frame each product and create individual digital images. All images are cataloged by: product name, product price and country origin. Then the products are coded by color, from the least popular color (white) on top to the most popular color (blue) on bottom and the country and purchase price is listed under each photo. The grid-like display invites intriguing social commentary and questions around demand and desire for merchandise. Are the preferences decided by Amazon’s advertising strategy or does each country have a unique consumer character?
Customer
The Customer Feedback section of the website provided access to individual consumers. This intriguing point of connection between corporation and citizen reveals emotional and ideological responses to the individual products. I extracted the text and added voice software to create audio files. Slideshows project images layered with the soundtrack of voices in all seven languages reading product testimonies.
photos by Lara Woolfson
the Amazon project
In 2009, I launched an ambitious project to explore the largest most successful e-retailer in the world, the Amazon Corporation. Every month, 270 million people visit amazon.com and in 2008 they generated over $19.2 billion in sales. This is a global phenomenon and Amazon hosts seven individual websites for the countries, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, and the United States. I was interested to take a virtual environment and make it physical. The result is a multi-faceted installation of the “global bestsellers 2009” that examines three main areas of the websites: taxonomy, products and customer feedback.
Taxonomy
Considering that amazon.com has over ten million items for sale, a dependable user navigation system is crucial. Each individual search finds a predictable path towards a desired end - these are called category trees. Searching for a towel rack, one might look under:
Home Improvement > Hardware > Bathroom Hardware > Towel Holders > Towel Racks. I set out to document all the groupings, extracting every category tree from each of the country sites, then printing and binding all of them into seven hard-cover books. With over 52,000 categories in the U.S. alone, these volumes quantify the massive amounts of consumer goods available from this one retailer.
Products
The installation illustrates 5,500 “bestselling” products across all seven Amazon websites. I used a type of photography to literally frame each product and create individual digital images. All images are cataloged by: product name, product price and country origin. Then the products are coded by color, from the least popular color (white) on top to the most popular color (blue) on bottom and the country and purchase price is listed under each photo. The grid-like display invites intriguing social commentary and questions around demand and desire for merchandise. Are the preferences decided by Amazon’s advertising strategy or does each country have a unique consumer character?
Customer
The Customer Feedback section of the website provided access to individual consumers. This intriguing point of connection between corporation and citizen reveals emotional and ideological responses to the individual products. I extracted the text and added voice software to create audio files. Slideshows project images layered with the soundtrack of voices in all seven languages reading product testimonies.
photos by Lara Woolfson
the Amazon project
In 2009, I launched an ambitious project to explore the largest most successful e-retailer in the world, the Amazon Corporation. Every month, 270 million people visit amazon.com and in 2008 they generated over $19.2 billion in sales. This is a global phenomenon and Amazon hosts seven individual websites for the countries, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, and the United States. I was interested to take a virtual environment and make it physical. The result is a multi-faceted installation of the “global bestsellers 2009” that examines three main areas of the websites: taxonomy, products and customer feedback.
Taxonomy
Considering that amazon.com has over ten million items for sale, a dependable user navigation system is crucial. Each individual search finds a predictable path towards a desired end - these are called category trees. Searching for a towel rack, one might look under:
Home Improvement > Hardware > Bathroom Hardware > Towel Holders > Towel Racks. I set out to document all the groupings, extracting every category tree from each of the country sites, then printing and binding all of them into seven hard-cover books. With over 52,000 categories in the U.S. alone, these volumes quantify the massive amounts of consumer goods available from this one retailer.
Products
The installation illustrates 5,500 “bestselling” products across all seven Amazon websites. I used a type of photography to literally frame each product and create individual digital images. All images are cataloged by: product name, product price and country origin. Then the products are coded by color, from the least popular color (white) on top to the most popular color (blue) on bottom and the country and purchase price is listed under each photo. The grid-like display invites intriguing social commentary and questions around demand and desire for merchandise. Are the preferences decided by Amazon’s advertising strategy or does each country have a unique consumer character?
Customer
The Customer Feedback section of the website provided access to individual consumers. This intriguing point of connection between corporation and citizen reveals emotional and ideological responses to the individual products. I extracted the text and added voice software to create audio files. Slideshows project images layered with the soundtrack of voices in all seven languages reading product testimonies.
photos by Lara Woolfson
the Amazon project
In 2009, I launched an ambitious project to explore the largest most successful e-retailer in the world, the Amazon Corporation. Every month, 270 million people visit amazon.com and in 2008 they generated over $19.2 billion in sales. This is a global phenomenon and Amazon hosts seven individual websites for the countries, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, and the United States. I was interested to take a virtual environment and make it physical. The result is a multi-faceted installation of the “global bestsellers 2009” that examines three main areas of the websites: taxonomy, products and customer feedback.
Taxonomy
Considering that amazon.com has over ten million items for sale, a dependable user navigation system is crucial. Each individual search finds a predictable path towards a desired end - these are called category trees. Searching for a towel rack, one might look under:
Home Improvement > Hardware > Bathroom Hardware > Towel Holders > Towel Racks. I set out to document all the groupings, extracting every category tree from each of the country sites, then printing and binding all of them into seven hard-cover books. With over 52,000 categories in the U.S. alone, these volumes quantify the massive amounts of consumer goods available from this one retailer.
Products
The installation illustrates 5,500 “bestselling” products across all seven Amazon websites. I used a type of photography to literally frame each product and create individual digital images. All images are cataloged by: product name, product price and country origin. Then the products are coded by color, from the least popular color (white) on top to the most popular color (blue) on bottom and the country and purchase price is listed under each photo. The grid-like display invites intriguing social commentary and questions around demand and desire for merchandise. Are the preferences decided by Amazon’s advertising strategy or does each country have a unique consumer character?
Customer
The Customer Feedback section of the website provided access to individual consumers. This intriguing point of connection between corporation and citizen reveals emotional and ideological responses to the individual products. I extracted the text and added voice software to create audio files. Slideshows project images layered with the soundtrack of voices in all seven languages reading product testimonies.
photos by Lara Woolfson
the Amazon project
In 2009, I launched an ambitious project to explore the largest most successful e-retailer in the world, the Amazon Corporation. Every month, 270 million people visit amazon.com and in 2008 they generated over $19.2 billion in sales. This is a global phenomenon and Amazon hosts seven individual websites for the countries, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, and the United States. I was interested to take a virtual environment and make it physical. The result is a multi-faceted installation of the “global bestsellers 2009” that examines three main areas of the websites: taxonomy, products and customer feedback.
Taxonomy
Considering that amazon.com has over ten million items for sale, a dependable user navigation system is crucial. Each individual search finds a predictable path towards a desired end - these are called category trees. Searching for a towel rack, one might look under:
Home Improvement > Hardware > Bathroom Hardware > Towel Holders > Towel Racks. I set out to document all the groupings, extracting every category tree from each of the country sites, then printing and binding all of them into seven hard-cover books. With over 52,000 categories in the U.S. alone, these volumes quantify the massive amounts of consumer goods available from this one retailer.
Products
The installation illustrates 5,500 “bestselling” products across all seven Amazon websites. I used a type of photography to literally frame each product and create individual digital images. All images are cataloged by: product name, product price and country origin. Then the products are coded by color, from the least popular color (white) on top to the most popular color (blue) on bottom and the country and purchase price is listed under each photo. The grid-like display invites intriguing social commentary and questions around demand and desire for merchandise. Are the preferences decided by Amazon’s advertising strategy or does each country have a unique consumer character?
Customer
The Customer Feedback section of the website provided access to individual consumers. This intriguing point of connection between corporation and citizen reveals emotional and ideological responses to the individual products. I extracted the text and added voice software to create audio files. Slideshows project images layered with the soundtrack of voices in all seven languages reading product testimonies.
photos by Lara Woolfson